Estes Park’s evolving Christmas decorations
In 1930, the Town of Estes Park erected and decorated a large tree at the intersection of Elkhorn and Moraine Avenues. Evergreen garlands were strung across the street, and wreaths were hung on street poles.
In 1936, in addition to the evergreen streamers, colored lights were added; however, officials decided to eliminate the tree and instead erect an enormous ice palace. Due to warm weather, canvas tarps had to be placed over the west side of the ice palace in the afternoons to reduce melting.
In 1940, garlands and colored Christmas lights adorned lamp posts downtown, and an ice palace was built in the library park, which was illuminated with colored lights. Two large, illuminated stars and a cross were placed on Little Prospect and the mountain at the west end of Elkhorn Avenue. One printed account reported that “Estes Park is becoming known as one of the most beautifully decorated small towns in the country during the Christmas holidays.”
In November 1945, the Town of Estes Park put out garlands and wreaths for the first time since the start of World War II. A notice was published: “Every man, woman and child in Estes Park or the entire surrounding community may have a part in the real community Christmas planned for the region this year.”
“Every woman in the community is invited and urged to come to the church wearing a housedress and bringing gloves in which to work. Each is to bring a covered dish for the luncheon, which will be served at noon on Tuesday, December 4. Experienced women will be there to demonstrate the proper way to make the decorations, which will be hung by the Town employees when completed.”
The historic star and cross that overlook the town were to be again lit for the season, and “Town officials are endeavoring to provide Christmas lights on the streets and the Christmas tree, which will be erected for the Christmas season.”
In 1949, the town installed Christmas streetlights, and the Chamber of Commerce offered $25 in prize money for the best residential and business decorations.
Several trees in Bond Park were decorated in 1954, and colored lights were strung across the upper part of Olympus Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. Many homeowners had decorated their homes in hopes of winning the town’s annual Christmas lighting contest, sponsored by the Town’s Light and Power Department and the Chamber of Commerce.
While Christmas lights today are now turned on a week before Thanksgiving, in 1959, the annual lighting ceremony took place on Monday, Dec. 7. Six years later, the ceremony was pushed back to the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Santa arrived at Bond Park at 2 p.m., and carnival rides — including a merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, Tub-of-Fun, and swings — were set up in the parking lot.
One promotion boasted that “the Estes Park business houses are going all out to make the Village the gayest ‘Christmas City’ in the Rocky Mountain West.”
Buel Porter’s legacy
Beginning in the 1950s, Buel F. Porter, a retired Coca-Cola sign painter and a noted theater lobby artist who at one time had worked for Walt Disney, created several larger-than-life Christmas scenes that became cherished town artifacts: Christmas in Bugville, the Old Woman in the Shoe, Santa’s Christmas Card Studio, the Three Wise Men, Shepards, Jesus, Santa with a Sleigh, and the Nativity.
Porter, who died in 1969, created the scenes for a cost of $300 each, hoping that Estes Park could become a nationally recognized Christmas-season town. Using his skills as a sign painter, the three-dimensional scenes were constructed with plywood and painted with enamel paints.
While time and weather have taken their toll on some of the scenes, and some have disappeared altogether, several are still displayed today, including Santa and His Reindeer on the hill high above downtown, Christmas in Bugville and Santa’s Christmas Card Studio near the Library along East Elkhorn, and the Old Woman in the Shoe near the intersection of St. Vrain and US 36.
The Nativity is again on display this year on the grounds of Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church, after being out of commission for a while due to structural repairs. Doug Watry, the church’s facility director and a retired National Park fuels management specialist, rebuilt the supportive framework, replaced rotten wood, and repainted and sealed the wood to preserve the decoration.
Several people have commented on social media that the “Old Woman in the Shoe” display, which was painted in 1965, is showing its age and in need of restoration.
Christmas lights, the energy crisis, and costs
By the 1970s, the community’s festivities were established in Bond Park. In response to the 1973 energy crisis, the town reduced the amount of holiday lights by more than 60 percent, including the elimination of holiday lighting on light poles. Additionally, the decision was made not to sponsor the annual light contest in an effort to reduce the demand on the energy grid.
In 1980, about 200 people gathered in Bond Park for the annual “Lights On” ceremony, and although the energy crisis had abated, Marian Blake of Estes Park expressed disappointment in a letter to the editor of the Estes Park Trail that the holiday lights were not turned on the night before Thanksgiving, calling the decision “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
The town also grappled with the staff and maintenance costs of installing the elaborate light displays, providing the electricity, and then dismantling them. In 1989, the estimated expense to the town for decorating for the holiday was $40,000, which did not include the additional $13,000 for staging the Christmas parade.
The seasonal decorations included strings of lights on downtown trees and 130 decorations attached to light poles. The director of the town’s light and power department estimated that there were approximately 6,600 light bulbs on the street lamp decorations. Workers were assigned to make the rounds every night to see if any of the bulbs had burned out and needed to be replaced. The light bill alone was estimated to run $1,700, and the town also spent $4,100 that year to restore the Porter nativity display.
The sounds and cents of Christmas
In 1990, the town spent $3,000 on a lease-purchase for a sound system to pipe Christmas music throughout the downtown area. The expense was justified because the system could be used throughout the year for other events.
Decorations and crew costs continued to rise throughout the 1990s. In 1997, the town budgeted $58,750 and hired Rocky Mountain Lawn Care to install, maintain, and remove the seasonal decorations.
The annual nighttime Catch the Glow Parade, which began in 1988, has drawn both locals and visitors, with crowds estimated to be between 20,000 and 30,000 depending on the weather and the year. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the parade took a different route. Rather than proceeding down Elkhorn, the floats were stationed at the fairgrounds, and people drove through the area.
A new tradition: The dazzling digital tree
Estes Park began a new tradition in 2024 with the installation of a 36-foot-tall digital LED tree in the center of Bond Park, which displays a computerized light show synchronized to holiday music. The lights provide a cascading light show, moving up and down and around the tree.
The tree, which cost more than $150,000, was paid for by Visit Estes Park, the special marketing district responsible for promoting tourism in the area. VEP also covered the cost of displaying lights and other downtown decorations.
To install the tree and ensure it could withstand high winds, a special underground base was installed last year to anchor the tree in place. While it has weathered the winds, a week ago, during gusts of more than 70 mph, the decorative base around the tree was blown apart, as was a decorative sleigh. Volunteers and maintenance crews stepped in to rescue the displays.
In addition to thousands of white lights on every tree lining Elkhorn Avenue, other town holiday decorations include a giant lit sphere, situated in George Hix Plaza this year, which people can walk inside to have their picture taken, and an oversized dreidel at Confluence Park.
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